STEM Activities for Christmas

It’s always fun to integrate the holidays and seasons into what you teach or the playful learning activities that are available for your kids or students to explore, which is why I love seasonal STEM and engineering challenges.

Plans for a Better Tomorrow has a great series (that’s ongoing right now, but you can see the basics of each idea on this post) of winter/Christmas STEM challenges, in which students are given supplies to make a specific thing, such as the tallest snowman or a fortress made out of marshmallows that can best withstand attack. So fun and clever!

Le Chaim on the Right has a great collection of 25 days of Christmas STEM ideas collected from around the Internet, and there’s a lot of fun stuff there. My daughter’s class did dissolving candy canes the other day and they all thought it was really cool. There’s also a snow storm in a jar, forming crystals on a Christmas tree, tinkering trees, Christmas light experiments for older kids and much more.

I’m certainly adding some of these to the list of winter break activities to have on hand for the girl!

[Photo via Le Chaim on the Right.]

Check out these Science Activity books

It is important to teach STEAM to children because it helps them develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. STEM learning also helps children understand how the world works and how to apply that knowledge to real-world situations.

One of the most important benefits of STEAM learning is that it helps children develop critical thinking skills. STEM learning is all about finding creative solutions to problems, and this type of thinking is essential in today’s ever-changing world.

Another benefit of STEM learning is that it helps children understand how the world works. By understanding how scientific and mathematical concepts work, children can better understand the world around them. This knowledge can then be applied to real-world situations, such as environmental issues or designing a new product.

Finally, STEM learning is interesting and engaging for children. It helps them to see the world in a different way and to think about problems in new and innovative ways. This type of learning can spark a child’s curiosity and creativity, and lead to a lifelong love of learning.

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Have you read?

Leave a Reply